Childhood hyperactivity affects 400,000 children in France

A recent study claims that French children are the most likely to suffer from it in Europe, but doctors continue to question the reality of this disorder.

“My child is hyperactive”… The temptation is strong, in front of a difficult, turbulent child, to attach this very fashionable label to him, rather than that of “brat kid”. However, hyperactivity is only one symptom that contributes to a highly publicized psychiatric disorder: ADHD, for “Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder”. A diagnosis that would affect 3 to 5% of school-age children in our country, one to two per class, or 400,000 aged 4 to 18 years. The media coverage of hyperactivity has masked the importance of other symptoms which belong to three families: agitation but also impulsiveness (lack of patience, anger) and above all attention deficit.

Invention or American particularism, overvaluation? These accusations are not new, nothing typical of our time: medicine has been talking about them since the 19^and century, and in societies that have not benefited from our development, we find children suffering from the same symptoms, which disqualifies the responsibility for our modern way of life.

No responsible area in the brain has been identified; it is more probably a question of faults in the maturation of the circuits, which explains why a third of children recover without treatment, thanks to the process of maturation which must be accompanied.

Is education involved?

Most families of patients seem to lack consistency in the demands of daily life, but this brings us back to genetics: its importance is such, found in 70% of cases, that it is not uncommon for a parent to be affected. of the same disease; or even both… which does not facilitate the treatment!

The absence of brain abnormalities or detectable chemical changes lead some doctors to speak of invention to justify the prescription of drugs, psychostimulants, considered by some to be drugs.

The treatment of ADHD is the world of paradoxes: the use of video games to stimulate attention, whereas until recently they were said to be aggravating factors, and above all the use of a drug similar to amphetamines. Prescribing a stimulant seems at first sight paradoxical in a hyperactive person. In fact, we use its action on the attention deficit, which has the effect of calming the agitation. A quick tour of the Internet shows the passionate atmosphere that surrounds these drugs, which some do not hesitate to call “kiddy coke”, the drug of children. A much-discussed treatment, probably effective, but over-prescribed in nearly eight million children worldwide.

In France, only 5% of ADHD patients follow this drug treatment, which is reserved only for severe forms and in the event of failure of other approaches. Our doctors prefer the techniques of rehabilitation, the education of the child certainly but also of the parents, the work with the teachers; real solutions but much more restrictive than the use of a simple pill…

There is no link between ADHD and intelligence and the academic difficulties that most of these children suffer from are related to behavioral disorders or attention deficit. However, as they age, 50% of children retain their symptoms, which explains the figure of 7% of the adult population affected, according to the most recent study.